About this time last year, I began to seek out lab positions. I decided that at a school as large as Berkeley, there were bound to be a lot of unique opportunities; on the flip side, however, being one of thousands, I figured chances of being noticed would be thin.
As a freshman, I decided that the best options to take would either be to apply to SURF, a known research program, or to email lab directors directly. I initially took the second route and emailed five professors of which two got back to me within the next week and a half. From there on, I spoke to the post-grad I was assigned to and he offered a position for the summer and on. Least to say, I was entirely ecstatic. These opportunities may seem very limited but, in reality, postgrads are always happy for an extra set of hands.
Here is what I’ve learned in the last nine months or so, working at this neurobiology lab.
- Working at a lab helps you learn to make use of your time like no other.
That summer, I took Biology 1A while starting my shifts at the lab four out of five weekdays. Note that Biology 1A is known to be one of the toughest pre-requisites but I was determined to do well. There were classes in the morning until around 3pm and then I’d head into the lab for the rest of the day before heading home.
What you have to know is that experiments and procedures in the lab take time. There are certain things such as PCR and staining that can take up to two hours of just letting the machines run. In order to make better use of my time, I would bring all the my study materials to the lab, computer and charger as well, and just sit at the little empty cubicles and study during the downtime. On top of that, I decided that the little gaps between my classes were sufficient enough to run into lab and set everything up for the PCR reactions or make gels for the electrophoresis beforehand.
Note that if you want to work in a lab during the school year, time management is absolutely the key. I’ve learned that every second in the day is time that you can use to effectively, especially if you have a lot of extracurriculars to manage.
2. Mistakes are more prevalent than you can imagine.
Having not been a lab person or into labs for chemistry, you can imagine how terrified I was to know that I would have to be performing tasks that actually mattered for research, not just a slide-by grade in Chem 1A. I doubted my abilities to the max and every time someone suggested I do something differently, I beat myself up. I thought I was slightly less capable than everyone else in the lab. Evidently, I forgot that mistakes are ok as long as you are willing to learn to correct what needs to be corrected or improve.
Even today, even amazing postgrads and paid researchers make some mistakes at time. No one is expecting perfection from you. Simply the willingness and eagerness to learn. I won’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve messed up genotyping but it’s a vital aspect of the lab.
The goal of laboratory is a lot of trial and error. If you’re a little sensitive to criticism, this is the place to go to grow. Understand that each experiment ran is an attempt to develop not only skills but to be able to pinpoint issues whether that be the genotyping material, the solution, or at times, your own errors.
3. The people in your lab are truly amazing.
Recently, I heard one of the postgrads I work with is going to become a professor or the administration head of UPenn’s medical school. Taking every opportunity to get to know such well-established people is essential and the lab may very well be the perfect place to do it. Honestly, I’ve never gotten to know my professors well enough and am going to try to do so this semester, as my classes have also simultaneously become that much harder. However, whenever I need recommendation letters or insight, it’s beneficial to directly ask the postgrad I work with.
My final advice is this: working at a lab is a good opportunity but don’t do it if you don’t have your heart in it.
The work that these researchers are doing is very meaningful and interesting to them. Make sure that you can understand that the work they do is extremely valuable and be sure to put 100% effort in what and how you contribute.